


You always this quiet?

by flickerbyniall



Series: Prompts [3]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Asthon is nialls ex, Blind Date, M/M, niall doesnt really wanna date yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 06:12:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14254689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickerbyniall/pseuds/flickerbyniall
Summary: He will be wearing a see-through flower shirt, black skinny jeans and Chelsea boots! Brown hair and a lot of rings! His name is Connor. Be there at 8. Have fun, Niall. I’m begging you.Or Niall's friends set him up a blind date.





	You always this quiet?

****Niall storms into the restaurant almost causing a commotion when he nearly bumps into a waitress but luckily, he stops himself on time to catch his breath and fix his shirt inside his pants. He looks up to find half of the customers already looking at him, so he clears up his throat and pretends like nothing happened as he enters the place.

Niall takes his phone out of his pocket to avoid the eyes of the judging strangers and distracts himself from all the attention. He checks out Tara’s text one more time as he takes off his coat.

_He will be wearing a see-through flower shirt, black skinny jeans and Chelsea boots! Brown hair and a lot of rings! His name is Connor. Be there at 8. Have fun, Niall. I’m begging you._

He smiles, putting his phone back in his pocket. He read that message eight times already, almost knows it word for word, but it still shakes up the butterflies in his stomach and makes his palms go all sweaty _._ He’s nervous and a bit scared. It’s been a little longer than a year since he had been on a date. Niall still feels like he’s not ready, but Louis and Tara teamed up together at the office, to make his life impossible, with the only purpose of getting him to accept this date.

They swear this Connor guy is perfect for him. Likes the same music, dresses nice and has a band that plays every Friday night in a bar near Tara’s house. And Niall doesn’t understand what the point of trying to forget Ashton is, if his friends want to introduce him to someone just like him. Niall knows they have good intentions, and he loves them for it, that’s the only reason he agreed with this, but the reality is that being alone is also great. He just made peace with the idea of Ashton never coming back to him, he’s finally enjoying his life.

But in times like this in these kind of places, he can’t help to remember his ex.

Ashton was sweet, smart, funny and sexy. They met starting collage and were together for almost five years. So when Ashton came home to their apartment one night, about a year ago, and told him his band got a record deal, Niall didn’t even have the time to congratulate him before Ashton broke up with him, saying things weren’t going to be easy, how everything was going to be more complicate from that moment on, how he didn’t want to make him wait for him and a lot of more bullshit Niall is still trying to forget.

Niall sighs and puts those thoughts to the back of his mind. This night, he was going to try to have a good time with this Connor guy for his friends. And who knows? Maybe something can come out of it, even though he highly doubts it. He can always come back to work on Monday and tell his friends that the sparkle just wasn’t there. It’d work with Tara, he will tell to Louis to go screw himself for all he cares.

So he stands in the corner of the room in the first floor of the restaurant, trying to get a better look at the people so he can find Connor, apologize for being so late and then start this so he can go home again soon. Niall curses under his breath when his vision starts getting too blurry, so he takes his glasses out of his coat inner pocket and puts them on his face.

That’s the moment he sees him across the room. Sitting by himself at a table for two next to the door that goes to the restaurant’s yard, looking at the menu, picking his pink lips with his fingers filled with rings, wearing something similar to what Tara said in her text. What neither Tara nor Louis warned him about how good-looking this guy is because it’s pretty incredible and now Niall feels out of place with his white shirt and blue pants. And he is a little mad because they both know how dumb Niall can be around pretty people.

Niall takes a deep breath and starts walking towards him, putting a smile on his face and trying to organize his thoughts before he might say something stupid. And he may have been walking really fast because one second he’s in the corner near the entry and the next he’s standing right in front of this gorgeous human being.

His brain must’ve melted. That is the only explanation why he is frozen, staring at him without saying a word. _Connor_ looks at him, leaning his head to his left and raises his eyebrow. Niall clears his throat for the second time that night, involving humiliation, and sits down quickly before hanging up his coat in the back of the chair.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Niall says hurriedly. “Deo, my cousin, took my car without asking and I thought it was a good idea to take the subway. Obviously, it wasn’t.” He laughs because that’s what Niall does when he’s nervous, but the guy in front of him doesn’t say anything, he just has his mouth open like he’s trying to talk but closes it right away again.

“Did you order already?” Niall asks. He nods. “I’m so sorry again, I wasn’t trying to be rude. I hope you weren’t waiting for too long.”

Niall calls the waiter over as he takes one of the menus from the table and starts reading it.

“Connor, right? I’m Niall,” he extends his arm and Connor shakes his hand.

And well, Connor’s hands are big, the kind of big that can drive Niall crazy, but his skin is soft and his rings feel cold on his warm fingers and he wants to disappear, but Connor doesn’t say anything and that makes him feel better somehow. Niall swallows visibly as Connor lets his hand go.

When the waiter comes, Niall orders a Carbonara and two glasses of wine because Connor’s already empty. Niall turns to Connor and he’s already looking at him, with those big and beautiful green eyes. There’s something ethereal about them, how it seems to change color from light green to darker shades and Niall asks himself how long is acceptable to look at him.

Niall can feel blushing because he’s not the only one staring, so he decides to start a conversation and _be himself_ as Tara suggested him.

“So… for how long have you known Tara?”

Connor seems to shock at something because he starts coughing in his fist and presses his hand against his chest. Niall stands up to help him but he stops him placing his other hand in front of him, so he sits. He’s avoiding eye contact and Niall doesn’t really know why, just like he doesn’t know the reason why he thinks is a good idea to stare at Connor’s chest tattoos.

And it’s weird because Tara never mentioned tattoos and when you have that many on the arms, the chest and the abdomen, it’s not something you can ignore, especially if you wearing a black flowered see-through shirt.

 **“You always this quiet?”** Niall finally asks because he’s losing his mind and he’d really like to hear his voice.

“He is when a stranger is sitting in front of him instead of his sister.” A voice behind him says.

Niall turns a sees a beautiful brunette with red lips standing behind him with crossed arms. She’s wearing a green coat with a white shirt underneath and light jeans. Niall’s eyes go back and ford between the two of them until he finally notices they’re siblings. _Did Connor just bring his sister to their date?_

He’s about to say something when the realization hits him right in the face. He slowly turns to the guy in front of him, begging to all the gods and the universe to forbid this to happen.

“You are not Connor,” Niall whispers.

“No,” he finally answers and Niall can feel himself heating up, knowing for a fact that his neck and cheeks are red, “I’m Harry. I’m sorry, you just sat down and started talking and I didn’t know how to stop you.”

Niall wants to die, not only from embarrassment, but Harry’s voice only could be the reason, it’s even better than he imagined. It’s raspy and slow and it’s like he’s drawing out the words with his tongue. Niall needs to get out of there right now, he needs to find the real Connor and suggest another restaurant because he won’t be returning here for at least twenty years.

“I’m so sorry!” Niall rushes. “My friend sent me a text describing how this Connor guy would be dressing and I thought it was you.”

“Are you telling me there’s another human in this earth that dresses like Harry?!” he hears the girl’s laugh and realizes he should quickly stands up so she can sit.

“I’m sorry, again. I should find-” but before Niall can finish that sentence, a guy comes downstairs talking to his phone and sounding really angry. He’s wearing a pink flowered shirt, black skinny jeans and red velvet boots. His footsteps are heavy and noisy, gaining everyone’s attention as he walks out of the restaurant mumbling _“I’ve been waiting for 45 minutes, Tara! I’m leaving now.”_  

“Well, that’s a shame, your clone just walked out of here before we could even take a picture of the two of you together!” she sits in front of his brother as he shakes his head.

“Gemma, leave it alone,” Harry sighs as he turns to Niall, who’s still looking at the entrance. “Are you ok?”

“Hmm?” Niall turns to find a really concerned look in those beautiful man’s eyes. “I guess so. I’m just really embarrassed. Tara is gonna kill me.”

Harry nods giving him a small smile, trying to comfort him. Niall sighs, smiling back.

“I’m sorry for all this again, I should be going.”

But the moment he’s about to take his coat from the chair, the waiter comes with three plates and places them perfectly on the table.

“You should join us,” Gemma says, smiling big before standing up and asking the lady at her right if the empty chair at her table is taken, after a little chat she places the chair next to his brother and sits there, holding her face in both hands, looking at Niall like he’s the most interesting person in the world. “Tell us your name and your story.” She pats the table and Niall sits.

*

For the next two hours they talk like they’ve known each other their whole lives. Gemma steals food from their plates and they end up eating three different meals and have too much wine. Which justifies Gemma answering Niall’s phone when Tara calls him and telling her that _they are very sorry but destiny played us all tonight_ , and to hang up right away. And Niall loves Gemma already, she’s a writer and she’s working for a magazine, but it’s temporary until she finishes her first novel and publishes it. 

Niall catches Harry looking at his sister with adoration in his eyes and he thinks it’s the most adorable thing ever.

Apparently, Harry is a production coordinator in fucking _Gucci_.

_“That’s why he’s always wearing Gucci, Niall! This pretentious pain in the ass.”_

She rolls her eyes but Niall can hear how proud she is of him from her tone. And Harry does too because he blushes and hides his face in his crossed arms over the table, so Niall decides to save him by telling them about his new job in Radio1, which makes them scream because apparently they’re good friends of Nick Grimshaw.

Harry gets groggy when he’s drunk, Niall notices. His words tangle together and he giggles at almost everything, he also gets closer to Niall, laying his head on his shoulder as Gemma tells them how she thinks her boyfriend is gonna propose to her at their trip to Venice next month. Harry has tears in his eyes and he pouts holding onto Niall’s arm.

So he tells them about Ashton and they listen like they really care, Gemma holds his right hand and Harry interweaves their fingers and she looks at them with this secret smile Niall can’t figure out yet. And in that moment, he realizes it doesn’t hurt anymore, Ashton is just a vague memory in the back of his head that he can easily let go of.

They ask for a bottle of water each before calling a taxi. It’s pretty late and it’s cold outside. Niall hides his face in the lapels of his coat as he sees Gemma rubbing her hands in her face two feet away from of them. Harry is standing next to him with his hands in the pockets of his brown coat, biting his lips like there was some kind of debate in his mind.

The first taxi arrives and Gemma gets in the moment the car stops, Harry laughs as he turns to Niall.

“We should do this again, without Gemma.” He says it so fast, Niall wouldn’t have been able to catch it if he wasn’t this close.

He turns his head with his mouth wide open and slowly nods, drawing a smile on his face.

“Harry, cmon!” Gemma yells from inside the car.

“I’ll call you, we have your number!”

Niall nods again, feeling just as stupid as the beginning of the evening. Harry gives him a last smile before getting into the taxi. Niall waves them goodbye and Gemma pops her head out of the window wishing him a goodnight.

He’s still waiting for his cab when he gets a text from an unknown number.

_I wanna see you tomorrow. Lunch? H. xx_

Niall bites his lips as he writes a quick answer, _I’d love to!_

Maybe he has to thanks Tara after all.

 


End file.
